PIÑON PERSPECTIVESNM CYFD PROTECTIVE SERVICES JAN 2014

Welcome to Piñon Perspectives. We will con-tinue to share updates on our Piñon “process” that includes work life and culture, policies and pro-grams, professional development, and innovation in the field. In this issue we interview Eric Mares with Permanency Planning in Taos and intro-duce our new Data Scholars Initiative called the Striving Toward Excellence Program focused on Continuous Quality Improvement. We hope you enjoy this issue and look forward to your insights, comments, ideas and an on-going dialogue.

PART 1: WELCOME

WELCOME

A NEW YEAR

YOUR PERSPECTIVESPiñon Perspectives e-magazine is designed by the Protective Services - Research, Assessment and Data Bureau. We encourage you to share your ideas for:

articles about your areas of interest

research on best practice

local experiments

interviews

courageous conversations

and artwork.

Your insights, observations and questions are most welcome. Contact us at pinon.project@state.nm.us.

The Art of PiñonThe January issue features the art of Francesca Yorke. Yorke, a native of the UK, grew up between the city life of London and the farmlands around her grandpar-ents’ cattle farm in the rural Cotswolds. An early and avid student of Ballet and Contemporary Dance, she turned to painting in college— studying initially at St Martin's School of Art, then earning a degree in film & photography from the University of Arts, both located in London. After a long career in England as an exten-sively published commercial and fine art photogra-pher, she emigrated to the Southwestern US where she has had a second home for a number of years in Santa Fe. Yorke is currently represented by David Richard Gallery in the Railyard Arts District in Santa Fe. Email Yorke at: francescayorke@hotmail.com

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Permanency Planning - Senior Worker-Taos County Protective Services

What do you like most about your job?

The part that I love most about my job is being able to help children who are in need. Children are the most vulnerable in communities and they need protection and guidance.

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PART 2: INTERVIEW

Q&A: ERIC MARES

What is a typical week like for you?

I work alongside foster parents, community pro-viders, attorneys, biological parents and children everyday. As a PPW it is my job to ensure that children are in a safe environment while in Foster Care. Also, I support biological parents, children and foster parents in accessing resources.

What can you tell us about experiments your office has initiated? Why did you do the ex-periment, what did you hope to achieve and how will you measure success?

The Taos Office identified supervision as our adaptive challenge. As we progress through the Piñon Project, we continue to explore new ways of supporting each other as a team. Supervision, in my eyes, is collaboration between two people or more to reach a common goal.

PS is a very complex area where people spe-cialize–and those of us working in it often only experience a small part of the overall sys-tem. How have you learned about the PS “big picture”—(learning about the services PS pro-vides)?

When I first started with the Department, I was a student intern. At this point in my career I have worked as an Investigator, In-Home Services Worker and now PPW Senior Worker.

While working within the Department, I realize that all of the positions build upon one another. Collaboration within CYFD is key to achieving a safe New Mexico for children and families.

What innovation would you like to see in PS?

I would like to be a part of creating an atmos-phere where collaboration among CYFD employ-ees is more advanced. I want to encourage col-

laboration not only in the work we, do but through outreach in the community as well.

What are success stories you hear out in the field or other states?

We all need to remember that the largest suc-cesses are the small tasks we complete and sup-port families with everyday. I have seen some families obtain Medicaid, learn to set boundaries with an abusive partner, find resources for their children, obtain counseling services for their fam-ily and so much more. Without the support of CYFD employees, this would not be possible. Sometimes the biggest successes are built upon the smallest building block.

How can central office and county office staff work to create work environments that foster courageous conversations–addressing work problems and conflict?

It is important to have courageous conversations to foster insight and creativity.....respectful coura-geous conversations of course. As part of a com-mon goal, we have different ideas of how to get there. Without challenging one another, we will never be the best we can be.

What type of professional development oppor-tunities would you like to see offered?

I think that CYFD does a good job of providing continued education/professional development opportunities to staff. I think that we should allow employees who are experienced and willing the opportunity to facilitate workshops/trainings for new employees.

Thank you for your time and insights.

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The Piñon Project is driving our Continuous Quality Improvement (CQI) process and focuses on the entire CYFD system—the “big picture.” In this arti-cle, we introduce a new Data Scholars Initiative called Striving Toward Excellence Program (STEP), currently in development by the Re-search, Assessment and Data Bureau.

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PART 3: PINON’S BIG PICTURE

A DATA SCHOLARS INITIATIVE IN PS

The Striving Toward Excellence Program (STEP) is a nine-month blended learning experience de-signed to empower participants and give them the tools, resources and support to strengthen the CQI process in their local offices. Compo-nents of the program include:

Classroom Experiences: A highly interactive face-to-face workshop with dialogue, debate, brainstorming, large- and smal-group discussion and review of content.

Coaching: Focused support for teams working on a local experiment.

Web-based Instruction and Resources: A web-site will house all the tools used in the program.

THE PROGRAM 9 TOPIC AREAS

Champions + Clients: Introducing program par-ticipants to the mission, objectives and goals of the program —as well as their role as local “champions” within both their agency and their community. Participants will focus on the ques-tion: What does data tell us about the clients we serve on the local level?

Assessing Work Flow + Challenges: Introduc-ing program participants to the PS process and where problems exist. Participants will focus on the question: What is the work flow in all areas of our PS system and what are the challenges?

Continuous Quality Improvement (CQI): Intro-ducing program participants to the role of data in Continuous Quality Improvement (CQI). Partici-pants will focus on the question: How does data assist us in implementing Continuous Quality Im-provement?

Data + Decisions: Introducing program partici-pants to the role of data in identifying and solving

problems. Participants will focus on the question: What is data and how does it impact decision-making on the local level?

Practice + Progress: Introducing program par-ticipants to the role of data in measuring perform-ance and achieving outcomes. Participants will focus on the question: How does data inform our understanding of effective practice and progress on the local level?

Evidence + Experiments: Introducing program participants to evidence-based strategies and conducting experiments on the local level. Partici-pants will focus on the question: What is an ex-periment and what is the role of data in an experi-ment?

Data-Driven Problem-Solving: Introducing pro-gram participants to managing by data and how it supports data-driven problem solving. Partici-pants will focus on the question: How managing by data helps local offices diagnose and identify solutions to problems

Change Agents + Communication: Introducing program participants to initiating and facilitating change. Participants will focus on the question: How do data and an experiment showcase the need for change?

Action Steps + Measuring Results: Program participants will share the status of their local ex-periments, provide feedback from their staff, and reflect on their role as a local champion. Partici-pants will focus on the question: How can we support CQI and measure the impact of our on-going local work?

The Program is in development with a launch date of Aug./Sept. Information about the applica-tion process will appear in the next issue.

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Those of us who work in child welfare are showing courage every day. The field presents a wide vari-ety of challenges. We confront or endure sadness, frustration, fear, danger, despair, uncertainly or in-timidation working out in the field. In our various offices we work to collaborate and act professionally in the face of limited resources and pressure. We also can see the rewards of our tireless work–re-united families and resilient children. As we enter the new year, we applaud the workforce for continu-ing to initiate courageous conversations and that often means standing up for what is right in difficult situations.

Courageous conversations are those workplace talks we have, whether with peers or with those in po-sitions of power, that address problems—such as workplace climate, culture, workloads, or communi-cation styles. Courageous conversations support a Piñon Value: Organizational Competence which creates a supportive, respectful and positive environment for staff.

We hope to present on-going examples of courageous conversations in the workplace. Please send us your “courageous conversation” experience (in 150 words) and the impact it had on your work to the Piñon Perspectives editor at pinon.project@state.nm.us.

PART 4: DIALOGUE

COURAGEOUS CONVERSATIONS

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